The Universal Postal Union has a complex system that administers contracts between member post offices relating to terminal dues paid between and among different post offices. Terminal dues are the payments made between national postal administrations to cover the costs of handling and delivering international mail. Rates are established by the Universal Postal Union, and through bilateral and multilateral agreements. Typically, a post office will charge another post office for the delivery of mail to a recipient within its jurisdiction. For instance, if mail is sent from the United States to the United Kingdom, the United States post office will deliver the mail to the Royal Mail, and the Royal Mail will deliver the mail to the recipient. At the end of a predetermined time, the United States post office and the Royal Mail will tabulate, by weight, all of the mail each post office delivered for the other post office and calculate how much money one post office owes to the other post office.
Business mailers prepare and process various types of business mail utilizing inserters to collate the sheets and stuff the same into envelopes. Invoices, advertisements for the purchase of goods and/or services, prepaid post cards as well as business reply, i.e., business reply envelopes, business reply cards. Business reply sometimes is placed in outer envelopes mailed by business mailers to customers. Recipients of business mailers' mail may enclose a check and invoice and/or an advertisement order form in the business reply mail and mail it via the United States Postal Service (USPS) to the business mailer. Business mailer recipient customers may also mail the enclosed business reply card back to the business mailer.
The USPS allows a business mailer to receive first class business reply permit mail from their customers and pay postage and a fee only for the mail returned to the mailer from the original distribution of the mailing. Postage and fees are collected when the mailer picks up the permit business reply mail at their local USPS office.
One of the disadvantages of the above procedure is that it does not accurately determine the services performed by each post office.
An additional disadvantage of the prior art is that a postage meter could not be used for the payment of international business reply mail.